


Coming Home

by h0ldthiscat



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 07:39:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5326079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/h0ldthiscat/pseuds/h0ldthiscat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The light in the kitchen window glows orange in the darkness, and she sees Mulder’s form moving around behind the curtains. She smiles and grabs her purse from the passenger seat, ready for a hot meal, a hot bath, and some hot--</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

Most days she enjoys the forty minute drive home, pitying her coworkers who shoot through tubes below the city at the end of the day. But today, the winding state road stretches through the darkness, the thin yellow lines disappearing with every turn, making her heart ache with a desire to just be there already, on the couch in a pair of wool socks with a cup of tea in her hand and his arm resting across her shoulders. 

Cold weather makes her melancholy, but it also means he cooks more in an unconscious need to keep the house warmer. He’d texted her a picture earlier in the day of ingredients for stew he’d purchased, and then a clumsy selfie of him in apron that said “Kiss the Cook.”

“God, what a dweeb,” her coworker Laura had teased. 

“A dreamy dweeb,” Tyler had chimed in, and they’d laughed huddled around a nurses’ station as Scully ate a quick granola bar between surgeries.

Five more minutes, she tells herself, drumming her fingers against the steering wheel and turning up the music a little louder to help keep herself alert. Driving back one night last year she’d almost hit a deer, and she didn’t stop shaking until he pulled her into a hug on the front porch. Mulder’s quiet gentleness is something she’s always appreciated, his ability to sense not the problem exactly, but merely the fact that something is awry, and to offer love and support without question. 

Gravel churns under her tires as she pulls up the driveway, and she is struck with a sudden desire for it to be Christmas. The light in the kitchen window glows orange in the darkness, and she sees Mulder’s form moving around behind the curtains. She smiles and grabs her purse from the passenger seat, ready for a hot meal, a hot bath, and some hot--

Her phone rings as she walks up the drive. “Scully.”

“Scully it’s me.”

She twists her mouth into a smirk. “I know, Mulder, I just pulled up outside.”

“I know. I’m calling to warn you.”

“Warn me?” She kicks at one of the porch steps with the toe of her boot. “About what?”

“I may have gone a little overboard with the grand gestures, so I wanted you to prepare yourself.” She sees him push aside the sheer curtain on the kitchen window and peer out at her in the driveway. He leans against the counter as he speaks into the phone.

“Mulder.” It is atonal, but it is simultaneously a question and an admonition. 

“I know, I know, you told me not to make a big deal about it but Scully… Scully, you’re the biggest deal I’ve ever met.”

Her heart feels too big for her chest. “High praise from a man who once met Carl Sagan.”

“He’s got nothing on you.” He looks down when he says it, and then back up quickly, like he’s making sure she hasn’t bolted. As if. 

She smiles, feels a sob welling in her throat. “I’m going to come inside now.”

“Try not to laugh. Some of it’s really corny. There’s rose petals and everything.” He turns away from the window, presumably putting the finishing touches on whatever arrangements he’s made for her return home. She’s never made a big deal of her birthday but god, he has. 

“Don’t spoil it!” She chuckles. 

“Okay,” he concedes. “See you at home.”

“See you at home,” she echoes. 

It’s become their mantra, their daily affirmation, their reward for all those years apart, all that time as nomads, all the shit they’ve been through. They have a home now. My god, they’ve earned it. 

She tucks her phone into her coat pocket and opens the door.


End file.
